Two years ago, Julian Lennon had a name changed. Now he is talking about this decision. In 2020, Julian Lennon changed his name to Julian Charles John Lennon. Before that his name was: John Charles Julian Lennon. So the pop musician swapped the positions of “Julian” and “John”. If, as was usual, he had only been addressed by his first name and last name, he would have been called like his father.
Speaking on the Word in Your Ear podcast, the son of the late Beatles star John Lennon said the pandemic played a big part in that decision. He shares the distress of being constantly addressed as John Lennon: “It was in 2020, just before we were all locked in a cage, that I finally decided to legally change my name. Because originally my name was John Charles Julian Lennon, and then came the crap I had to deal with when I was traveling, with security companies and this and that and other things.” He went on to explain: “Whenever I had to introduce myself, on boarding passes for example, (…) they always used only the first name, and so it was always ‘John Lennon, John Lennon'”.
Lennon felt like he was being misidentified. People commented on his name without even recognizing him. He didn’t want to live in his father’s shadow anymore – a problem he’s been struggling with since the Beatle’s death in 1980. Lennon said: “I want to respect my parents’ heritage and wishes, but all I did was swap the ‘John’ and the ‘Julian’ so I’m Julian Charles John Lennon. (…) I had to be myself. I finally had to be heard as Julian. That’s what Julian does, not ‘John’s son,’ so that was part of the journey and… it just made sense to me.”
In April he sang John Lennon’s 1971 hit “Imagine” for the first time. The performance took place as part of the “Stand Up for Ukraine” benefit concert and was televised by Global Citizen. The event raised over $10 million for refugee aid. In a video caption on YouTube, he wrote of the show’s video: “Why now after all these years? – I always said that I would only sing ‘IMAGINE’ if it was the ‘end of the world’”.
The positive response to his performance made him feel at peace with the name John Lennon. He says: “For the first time, I feel like I can walk around without fear and with my head held high”. Now that Lennon has changed his name, he feels like himself again and not a copy of his father. He says enthusiastically, “I might be feeling a little bit grown up now… It was magical. It was probably magical for the first time ever.”